Systems for managing traveling conditions of vehicles such as cars, dump trucks etc. have been disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H4-174387 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H4-174388. With the systems disclosed in these patent publications, location information of individual vehicles is detected using a GPS satellite, and that location information is regularly transmitted to a base station. However, it is not always necessary to keep current location information at the base station, depending on the intended use for the location information. By transmitting the information regularly as described above, it is uneconomical because transmission costs may be increased needlessly.
The systems disclosed in the above publications are for managing traveling time of a vehicle such as a car or dump truck using traveled distance of the vehicles, but a construction machine such as a hydraulic excavator etc, is generally transported to a site located remote from the site where the management system resides, and is used at that remote location. Upon completion of work, it is common to leave the construction machine behind at that remote location because it is too troublesome to collect the machine using a transport vehicle. Under these conditions, management of the construction machine by a manager is compromised, which places a mental strain on the manager.
A managing division for construction machines, namely a construction machine maker or rental company, must carry out management tasks to ascertain the usage conditions of a construction machine that has been supplied or provided and not to cause any inconvenience to the party being supplied or provided with the construction machine. For example, in the event that the construction machine breaks down, the location of the broken down machine is confirmed through contact from the person being supplied or provided with the construction machine, and a serviceman will only be called out after confirmation, which takes some time and delays the machine being put back in to service.